Three John Muir manuscripts from the Donohue Rare Book Room have been added to the Gleeson Library Digital Collections. John Muir (1938-1914) was a naturalist and key advocate of preserving wilderness areas in the western United States. His writings inspired the U.S. Congress to preserve the Yosemite Valley, Sequoia National Park and King’s Canyon National Park. Muir also founded the Sierra Club and is considered by many to be the “father of the National Parks.”

The Donohue Rare Book Room holds in its collections three complete Muir manuscripts, written in Muir’s hand, showing his corrections and marginal notations. The manuscripts are: A Rival of the Yosemite: the Cañon of the South Fork of King’s River, California (1891); The Alaska Trip (1897); and The Endangered Valley (1909). Muir manuscripts are extremely rare. Most surviving examples remained in the author’s family until they were later given to the University of the Pacific. The Gleeson Library manuscripts have the additional distinction of being bound in crushed red morocco with gold tooling by the British bindery, Rivière & Son.

Now that these important and historic manuscripts have been digitized and made available in the Rare Book Collection in the Digital Collections website, they may be accessed online 24/7. Moreover, the high-resolution files allow one to zoom-in to see the smallest details of the page. The thumbnail in the lower left of the screen will indicate the zoom area with a red square that  one can use to pan the image. To download a PDF of the complete manuscript, use the pull-down view menu on top of the left navigation area and select “complete print version.”

The Muir manuscripts were presented to the Gleeson Library in 1995 by benefactors Dr. Alan B. Coleman and Janet M. Coleman. The University of San Francisco is truly fortunate to have these treasures that are permanently housed in the Donohue Rare Book Room.

John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room

Jessica Lu
Digital Collections Librarian

This past summer librarian Vicki Rosen took a research leave to discover What is Ignatian Pedagogy? She shares some insights with us below.

What is Ignatian Pedagogy? by Vicki Rosen
We all know that USF is a Jesuit university. Officially known as the Society of Jesus, the Jesuits are an Order of the Catholic church. We might also know that the Order was founded by Ignatius of Loyola in the 16th century and that the Jesuits are known for excelling in education. In fact there are 28 Jesuit colleges and universities in the US, along with numerous secondary schools.

What distinguishes these schools from other institutions of learning? Jesuit education embodies five key teaching elements. These are described best by Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J. in his 1993 document”Ignatian Pedagogy: a Practical Approach”:

• Context: What is a learner’s environment, background, community, and potential?
• Experience: What is the best way to engage the learner as a whole person in the teaching and learning process?
• Reflection: How may a learner become more reflective so she/he more deeply understands what has been learned?
• Action: How can a learner move beyond knowledge to action?
• Evaluation: How can the teacher help the learner by assessing her/his growth in mind, heart, and spirit?

The focus on the education of the whole person is also referred to as “Cura Personalis.” The USF Jesuit Foundation explains this as “seeking to integrate all aspects of individuality: the intellectual, moral, spiritual, affective, aesthetic, physical, and social. This approach to education is holistic and calls on the learner to reflect on his or her experience in the context of the larger community.”

As a librarian, I’ve wondered how I can incorporate these principles into my work with students and faculty as they search for information. Currently, research into the affective aspects of information seeking and the neuroscience of learning are also offering new insights. During a Professional Research Leave and, with the help of a Jesuit Foundation grant, I took time this past summer to read widely, talk with my Jesuit and librarian colleagues, and reflect on my experiences. As I continue to assimilate this information, I hope to “move beyond knowledge to action.” For now, the actions are yet to be discerned. Perhaps not surprisingly, I’m gaining a deeper understanding not just of  pedagogical models, but also of myself along the way.